


smoked amethyst

by havisham



Category: Jolene - Dolly Parton (Song)
Genre: Background Character Death, F/F, F/M, Jealousy, POV First Person, Post-Canon, Southern Gothic, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-10-06 17:27:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20510753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/havisham/pseuds/havisham
Summary: Luann Lefay is back in town to bury her aunt, not to bury the hatchet with her old rival, Jolene. But Jolene won't be ignored, nor will she let Luann leave without a proper send off. With someone so magnetic and magical as Jolene, what can Luann do to get away? Why, give Jolene exactly what she's always wanted, of course.





	smoked amethyst

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Scytale](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scytale/gifts).

> Hey, Scytale! I hope you like this -- you had some great prompts for this song.

Jolene was the most powerful witch in the entire Southeast, but instead of living it up in Atlanta with the other magical bigwigs, she had stayed in the small mountain town that shared her name. Everyone talked about generous she was, how beautiful, how talented, but none of that meant anything to me. I’ve never liked Jolene, not since she bewitched Tom Riley away from me, the spring of our senior year of high school. 

She didn’t need to do it -- Jolene could have had her pick of men - of anyone. But I knew I could never love again -- and I was right about that. 

She took him just because she could. And then she moved on, just like that. And Tom came back to me, hat in his hand to talk to me like the last couple months had never happened. Mama always said I had too much pride in me, and maybe I did, but I couldn’t have Tom after that. Whenever I looked at him, I remembered Jolene’s soft ivory-colored hands on him, or how pretty Jolene’s auburn hair looked pressed up against his black hair, or how her green cat-eyes matched the color of the woods that we both loved. 

I said goodbye to Tom and goodbye to Fairleyville after that. Didn’t come back for fifteen years, until my Aunt Cece died and Mama harangued me over the telephone into coming back and paying my respects. Aunt Cece had been Jolene’s mentor growing up -- she was supposed to be mine, except I’d never shown much promise with the craft, at least, not the kind my aunt could teach me. 

Coming out of the funeral home, I ran into Jolene herself. She looked wonderful, of course. The last few years had only added to her bewitching looks. She smiled and said, her voice like summer rain, “Well, if it isn’t Luann Lefay. I’d never thought I’d see you again.” 

“Most people don’t come back to Fairleyville once they’ve left,” I acknowledged. “But I had to pay respects to Aunt Cece.” 

“She was a good woman. Taught me everything I knew,” said Jolene. 

“Well, not everything,” I said. I couldn’t help it. Jolene brought that out in me, that young, desperate girl who I thought I’d left behind so long ago. 

Jolene frowned. “You still haven’t forgiven me about that little indiscretion? People do some wild things when they’re eighteen and in love.” 

“Tom Riley was mine and you stole him from me even when I begged you not to,” I said angrily. I would’ve stamped my feet if I thought I could’ve gotten away with it. Jolene shook her head and sighed. 

“I can see this is a sore spot for you, and far be it for me to poke at it,” she said, with that pretty little smile that could charm just about anyone who ever met her. Everyone but me. “Well, have a good evening, Lulu. I’ll see you again before you leave.” 

I bristled at her calling me by that childish nickname that no one had used on me for years now -- Tom had been the very last one. Jolene really was the boldest minx in the county. 

But I smiled then and said I’d try, even though I didn’t think it likely. I had no desire to stay in town after my aunt’s funeral. Not for Jolene, not for Tom Riley and not for any old ghost of love long since lost. 

*

That was all well and good, but then my car wouldn’t start. Nick from the auto shop said that it’d take two weeks to get that part in. Then I got a call from work telling me that the water main broke, and everyone there would be furloughed anyway. Like it or not, I was stuck in Fairleyville for a little bit longer. 

When I got the call from Tabitha, my landlady, telling me that the apartment that shared a wall with mine had caught on fire, I didn’t even pretend to be surprised. 

After all, you didn’t become the enemy of the most powerful witch in the Southeast without seeing repercussions. That was just the nature of the world we live in. 

*

“Honestly, Luann, I haven’t hexed you,” said Jolene, as she slid into the pew next to mine at church. “I’d like for us to be friends, honestly I do.” 

“Fuck off, Jolene.” My voice was entirely too loud for our surroundings. I lowered it when I said, “I’m not _interested_ in being your friend.” 

Jolene gasped theatrically. “Swearing in church! Lulu, you really are a _bad _girl.” 

The smile she gave me was downright devilish - worthy of the Dark Gentleman himself. 

*

There was a knock at the door and I opened it, expecting some salesman or a Jehovah’s Witness or something like that. Instead, Tom Riley stood at my door, looking about the same as he had done all those years ago. 

“Lulu,” he said, with that crooked smile that had always captivated my heart. “I heard you were back but I wanted to see you again.” 

“Oh, Tom,” I said. “I don’t want to see you like this.” 

He bent his head in acknowledgement and when he did, I could see the line of blood trickling down from his coal-black hair. Tom Riley had died the summer we’d been twenty-one, riding on a motorcycle down those twisting mountain paths without a helmet. Mama later told me that it had been a very gruesome sight indeed -- more than one patrolman had lost his lunch that day. I was no doubt lucky that this revenant that stood before me was a kindly-looking one. 

Tom cleared his throat. “It gets lonesome, down at the graveyard. Hardly see a familiar face.” 

“Well, you wait a while and we’ll all be trickling in sooner or later, I’m sure.” 

We looked at each other for a moment before I laughed, unhappily. “It was cruel of Jolene to send you here to me.” 

“That’s what shades are for, darlin’,” said Tom with a wink, and then he disappeared. 

I frowned at the spot where he had been - I never liked it when he called me darlin’.

It was so fucking _corny_. 

*

Jolene’s house was an old place at the top of a hill, the very picture of a witch’s castle. She played up every little cliche - right down to the moat. I thought I might have to ford the moat, but I didn’t have to. Everything was open for me. I stormed my way, shouting Jolene’s name. 

“Jolene! Jolene! _Jolene!_”

“I love it when you call my name,” Jolene said, slinking out of some dark corner of her house. She looked resplendent in a velvet dress the color of smoked amethyst, deeply cut to show her snowy bosom to great effect. 

“I’ve had enough of you, Jolene!” I said. “You can’t make me stay here a moment longer. Tom’s dead - what more can you take from me?” 

“I’ve never wanted Tom in the first place,” Jolene snapped, stealing in so close to me that I could see the thin black irises of her eyes, against that deep green. “I was always in love you with you, Lulu. But you never gave me the time of day, you were so crazy about that boy.” 

“You’re lying!” I said. “You’re the most beautiful, accomplished and powerful witch this town’s ever seen. The likes of you would never be in love with the likes of _me_.” 

“Don’t you tell me how to feel, Luann. If I love someone, I don’t hesitate. Unlike you.” 

I glared at her. “That’s unnecessary.” 

“Well, I’ve waited for you for a long time.” 

“You’ve been ruining my life,” I pointed out. 

“Nothing permanent,” Jolene said with a smile that would persuade the Moon to outshine the Sun. I couldn’t resist any longer -- I kissed her. Of course, I’d always been curious, from the time when I heard Jolene’s name slipping from Tom’s sleeping tongue.

How would it be to kiss the most beautiful, most perfect girl in town?

“You gotta start thinking of me as a human being, girl,” Jolene said when she pulled away. “Fallible and all.” 

“Oh, I know you’re fallible. Being beautiful doesn’t stop anyone from fucking up.” 

Jolene’s arm stole around my waist. “You gotta stay a while, Lulu?” 

“Don’t call me that,” I said. When she kissed me again, however, I forgot what we were arguing about. That was just as well. I’ll remember soon enough. 


End file.
